A NATIVE SON OF Chicago’s West Side, John W. Fountain is a multi-award-winning columnist, journalist, professor, publisher and author of True Vine: A Young Black Man’s Journey of Faith, Hope and Clarity; and Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood. A tenured full professor of journalism at Roosevelt University since 2007, he wrote a weekly Sunday column for the Chicago Sun-Times for 13 years until November 2022. As a journalist, Fountain has chronicled the story of murder for 30 years, mostly in Chicago. He was a 2021-22 Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, where he conducted his research project: “Africa Calling: Portraits of Black Americans Drawn to the Motherland.” He is author of five books. His essay, “The God Who Embraced Me” was published in National Public Radio’s, “This I Believe” (Henry Holt, 2006). He is at work on a forthcoming memoir, “50 Cent A Word: Diary of A Freed Black Journalist”
As a professor, Fountain has taught all things journalism—from beginning news reporting to advanced news reporting, video production and opinion and editorial writing. Over a 20-year tenure, he has taught at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University as a guest scholar (2003-2004); at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a tenured full professor (2004-2007); as a tenured full professor at Roosevelt University (2007-present); and as a visiting professor at the University of Ghana-Legon (2022).
Fountain has designed courses on telling social justice stories, backpack journalism and literary journalism and utilized his professional background and resources to bring noted working journalists and public figures into the classroom to enhance and broaden the student learning experience. An impassioned professor and decorated veteran journalist, he brings to the classroom a wealth of knowledge and experience from being a cub reporter at a big-city daily newspaper who rose to the ranks of national correspondent at the national newspaper of record.
Additionally, he has spearheaded multiple convergence journalism projects focused on social justice issues. Indeed Fountain has led students in producing award-winning work to cover the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, to the crisis of murder and homelessness in Chicago, and most notably the Unforgotten 51, a nationally award-winning and critically-acclaimed examination of the murders of 51 mostly African-American women in Chicago. He continues to be a contributing member of the faculty, serving on various academic committees and in activities, organizing student project presentations and serving as a judge, keynote speaker and presenter at local and statewide student journalism workshops and beyond in addition to his own public speaking. In Fall 2024 Professor Fountain launched the website for FountainWorks, a digital journalism nonprofit dedicated to telling the untold stories of marginalized and underserved African-American communities in Chicago and its mostly Black suburbs. Unforgotten Bureau (for Social Justice Journalism) and 50 Cent A Word are branches of FountainWorks NFP. He published full versions of his students’ stories from their latest convergence journalism project, the City Turns Cold at the Unforgotten Bureau.
Email: Jfountain@roosevelt.edu
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